Fantasticide Aims to Improve and Advance the Art of Tabletop
Our Mission
Fantasticide is a streaming company built around providing the best in Tabletop-based entertainment. Through live shows, podcasts, and community, we aim to raise the bar on the storytelling we and the community achieve through our favorite past-time
ian gorham
Lives: Seattle, Washington
From: Prior Lake, Minnesota
Years Tabletopping: 6
I’ve always been a writer, organizer, and game-player. Writing terrible, cliche’d stories as a kid, modding games as a teen, building my own small video games and hobby projects in college and so on. So of course, I was intensely curious about DnD as early as highschool. But, alas, my path wasn’t fated to cross with Lady Tabletop so soon, and I would have to wait until I was just out of college before I got invited to a Pathfinder game run by a friend of a friend.
I’m not going to say I was hooked instantly, but the game had more than enough time to sink its claws in deep. The idea that you could have something so open ended, reactive, and free form appealed deeply to me, who frustrates constantly at the boundaries and limitations imposed by fixed, limited, narrowly-scoped rule systems. It wasn’t long before I tried running my own game with some roommates and close friends, which I lasted until I had to leave the state for job reasons about a year later. During that time, though, I took to DMing like a puppy to Fetch - that is, poorly and stumbling at first, but with deep seated enthusiasm that would drive me onward through my clumsy tabletop adolescence.
While that game would be my first, it wouldn't be my only one behind the screen. I’ve been working hard to improve my craft over the years - DMing has probably the deepest skill gap of any hobby I’ve taken up, and there’s always new techniques, skills, and tools I’m constantly discovering and stuffing into my tool set. Likewise, with the advent of tabletop podcasts and shows, there’s just such a wealth of games to observe and learn from - not to mention, adding the showrunning aspects to the game aspects brings a whole new layer of buttons to press and levers to pull for making a game truly great. These days, I spend entirely inordinate amounts of time seeking out new ways to advance the craft and bring the beauty I see in other forms of media - TV, movies, books, music, games - into my world of dice and fantasy.
In my day to day life, I’m a software engineer working on distributed systems in the Seattle area who dabbles in entirely too many hobbies for my own good.
Alex Yanik
Lives: South of the Twin Cities, Minnesota
From: West of the Twin Cities, Minnesota
Years Tabletopping: 7
My first experience with tabletop rpgs came when I was in my early teens, as my older brother explained to me some of the aspects of Dungeons and Dragons, though I didn’t actually play until my Sophomore year of university. One of my classmates and fellow biology major Martin asked me after class if I was interested in playing DnD, and I said hell yeah. And so, he taught me how to play 4th Edition DnD. (It’s a good system guys, I promise!)
Shortly thereafter, another friend of mine caught wind of my being a DnD player, and invited me to join his friends as they played a campaign of DnD 3.5, and then I was really hooked. Over the years I ended up playing with, and sometimes GMing, DnD 3.5 more than any other system, though often we took elements from Pathfinder 1e as well.
In my time gaming, I have played and/or GMed DnD 3rd, 4th, and 5th edition, Pathfinder 1e (and am playing a campaign of 2e over stream!), Starfinder, and Pokemon Tabletop United fairly extensively. I have also played some Cyberpunk, Fate Accelerated, and a few homebrew RPGs made by friends. I am interested in playing Symbaroum, Mutants and Masterminds, Exalted, Symbaroum, one of the many Star Wars rpgs, Symbaroum, Godlike, Call of Cthulu, Symbaroum, and many more I can’t remember offhand. Did I mention Symbaroum? Because that game looks siiiiiiiiiiick.
I have never participated in Pathfinder Society, Adventurer’s League, nor ever GMed a module.
My other interests include video games, reading, writing, anime, and spending entirely too much time making characters in every TTRPG I know.
Favorite game series: Fire Emblem
Favorite book series: Chronicles of the Black Company
Favorite anime: either Eureka Seven, Mob Psycho 100, or Toradora. Hard to Say.
Abby Nicole Schwingler
Location: Seattle, Washington
Origin: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Experience Level: 6 Years
I've always been a dreamer. I find it so hard to live in the present, when there's so many more interesting stories to explore. Growing up, I devoured books -- the more fantastical the better. I wanted to be a writer. But when I'd put pen to paper, I'd lose my words. Writing things out felt too finite. If the story stays in your head, it's flexible; possibilities are endless.
But stories are meant to be told -- I just hadn't found the right way to share mine yet. When Ian introduced me to tabletop, I found my medium. I didn't need to find my ending, I only needed to understand my beginning. The story -- the journey -- was for us to discover together. With tabletop, you share in your friends' perspectives. You play off their strengths and weaknesses just as much as your own. And the result is something wholly unique and unpredictable.
I was enamored. Still am, in fact. Now, six years later, I've played thousands of hours of tabletop roleplaying games and still the possibilities feel endless. Most of my experience comes from playing Pathfinder 1e and DnD 5e, but I've also played Dnd 3.5e, Starfinder, PTU, Fate, and the least little bit of Pathfinder 2e.
When I'm not pretending to be someone else, I tend virtual crops in Stardew Valley and design extravagant buildings in Terraria or Minecraft. Alternatively, I unplug and escape into a new book or the outside world (sometimes both). I enjoy camping, canoeing, and staring into space.
Merete Lofgren
Lives: Seattle, Washington
From: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Years Tabletopping: 6
I have always been a huge nerd, I’ve been playing video games all my life starting with my older sisters NES and my family has always had a least one computer loaded up with games since I can remember. Even outside of video games my favorite books to read were always of the fantasy or sci-fi genre, and that is where I got my first look into some D&D lore. One of the first books I can remember reading on my own is the book Spellfire from the Forgotten Realms series and from there I moved into book series like the Dragonriders of Pern and the Magic of Xanth set of novels.
Even with my interest in fantasy and RPG’s I didn’t get a chance to play a tabletop game until my husband got his first taste with some friends and decided he wanted to try running a game. I was hooked almost instantly and have been involved in at least one game ever since. I have since played Pathfinder, D&D 3.5 and 5th ed, Pokemon Tabletop United and Fate(Standard and Accelerated). I am currently very interested in playing Call of Cthulhu, Vampire the Masquerade, any of the Star Wars RPGS, Ryuutama, and honestly if it has a cool cover I want to play it.
Outside of tabletop, books and video games I also watch anime and read manga and participate in some Harry Potter Trivia.
evan miller
Lives: Columbus, Ohio
From: Prior Lake, Minnesota
Years Tabletopping: 3
I got into table topping kind of backwards… I grew up an avid video gamer and still am, but I grew into becoming more fascinated with the world building and background narratives in games like The Witcher, and Horizon Zero Dawn. I started to write pantheons and short stories about how a town came to be or how civilization was first founded. I was taking a class in geology at the time and my professor was a volcano enthusiast so we had spent a lot of time looking into the deeper sciences of plate tectonics. This directly translated into world building I was doing in my free time and I started including weather patterns and making notes on how the seasons would change the landscape and form mountain ranges over time, etc. I started drawing fantasy maps based on practical science and putting locations to my pantheons and stories that I had written.
It was some time in December 2016 I was visiting home in Minnesota and had gotten dinner with Abby. I was telling her about this map I had drawn and that I had a whole pantheon and a bunch of short stories about the history of the world with proper nouns and everything. She just sat there listening to me go on and on about the details of this world and then she was like, “Evan, you’re a Dungeon Master. You should take this and be a Dungeon Master.” I looked at her baffled, like “What’s a Dungeon Master?” Everything from then on was pretty much history.
I currently participate in Pathfinder and Starfinder Society games in the local Columbus area as well as Dungeon Master my own home game for over a year now. The part of table top role-playing games that keeps me going out to play is that fact that it is for everybody. It’s a time to be judged based only what you literally bring to the table. A time to be silly and in-character, and to become immersed into a cohesive imagination working together to create a fun and compelling narrative. It’s exclusive to the players that it forever binds into your memory as a special moment. But it doesn’t stop… it’s simply a continuous motion of special moments that you share and create together. Nothing else really compares.
Aside from table topping and gaming, I’m a musical hobbyist and work as a social worker in the Columbus area.
Joe Palomaki
From: Victor, NY
Lives in: Rochester, NY
Years Playing Tabletop: 2 Years
What’s up yo, my name is Joe and this is my crib bio. I am both the youngest member of the Fantasticide team, and the newest to Tabletop games. Don’t let my relative inexperience fool you, Tabletop Gaming filled a void that I had been trying to fill for ages. My first real introduction to Tabletop games was through the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; although at the time I didn’t know they were associated with Tabletop Gaming, I was just a huge fan of books. Ever an avid reader, I devoured fiction in my childhood and adolescence, escaping to fantastical worlds of magic and adventure. My love of books greatly influenced what other Media I chose to consume; to this day, I prefer multi-book series, games with thrilling and reactive narratives, and TV shows over most Movies.
My first RPG experience happened when an Uncle of mine bought be Fable for the original Xbox. I was immediately hooked on the game, the freedom of choice, action, the fantastical fights, and most importantly, the effects your actions have on your character, and the world. I chased that feeling in console and computer games for a while, experimenting with, and enjoying the world building of Journey, Metal Gear Solid, The Elder Scrolls, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mass Effect, and many others.
I had long dreamed of designing a Video Game, one that accurately captured the elements of character choice, a setting that is reflective of those choices, and antagonists that don’t fall simply into “good” or “evil”. I wanted the player to make friends, choices, and alliances through their actions, rather than the default world state. I spent a lot of time, trying to get these ideas into a system that could empirically sort through the choices in a multifaceted sorting system, that I’d be able to turn into coding. In this process, I talked to Evan, who mentioned that if I was looking at this, that I should check out Tabletop games. Shortly thereafter, Evan invited me to a game he was playing in, and I dipped my feet in the waters of Tabletop.
This first game immediately had me hooked, and after my first few sessions, playing weekly didn’t feel like enough. I started looking deeper into the system, experimenting with making other original characters, and characters from Games, TV Shows, and Books that I had read. When I had played in games as a player for about a year, I asked my group if they’d be willing to play a game with me DMing so that I could learn and grow, and figure out my own “DM style.” They readily agreed, and we started playing through a user created system called Pokemon Tabletop United (PTU), and have been playing the same PTU campaign for a bit more than a year now. I also play games in D&D 5e, Pathfinder 1&2.
When I’m not playing Tabletop, I manage Greenhouses - many of my characters end up loving plants and nature. I am a battery percussion educator, and composer (no, i’ve never played a bard). I love to read, write, and listen to music. I also love to cook, and frequently experiment with making new dishes, or attempting to recreate things I’ve seen or eaten once.
Other fun facts about me:
My favorite colors are earth tones, and I love the Winter months because I have awful allergies.
I’m a Capricorn, I play a Black/White deck in Magic the Gathering, and when I play games online, I prefer Support / Healing. \
I frequently test into True Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral for alignment, and my preferred classes are Alchemist, Ranger, and Cleric.
My Harry Potter house is Slytherin, my Ilvermorny house is Horned Serpent, my Patronus is a doberman, and my wand is Elm with a Dragon heartstring (thirteen inches, surprisingly bendy).
If I were a bender, I’d be an earth bender, and if I was a Gym Leader, I would specialize in the Ground Type, and if I could have any pokemon it would be Cubone (because no pokemon needs you like a Cubone does.).
I fall into House Stark (Winter is Coming), and I prefer Marvel to DC, but only because of the X-men, and Gambit is the greatest mutant out there, don’t @ me.
My favorite food is Cioppino, but I absolutely love to make Risotto.